There are 13,475 community Covid cases and 17 deaths today. 

It takes the total number of publicly-reported deaths of people with Covid-19 to 355 and the seven-day rolling average to 17. 

Seven of today's deaths were people from the Auckland region, two from Waikato, one from Bay of Plenty, one from Lakes DHB, one from the Hawke's Bay, one from the Wellington region, one from Canterbury, one from the West Coast, and two were from the Southern region. 

Two were aged in their 50s, four were in their 60s, five were in their 70s, three in their 80s and three were over 90. 

"Our thoughts and condolences are with their whānau and friends at this sad time," the Ministry of Health said. 

The ministry also reported 764 hospitalisations with 31 in ICU. 

The seven day rolling average of cases is continuing to decline; today's average is 14,171, compared to 17,197 last Friday. 

The 17 deaths included people who had died over the past seven days, including 15 people who had died in the past two days. 

Reporting delays could be due to people dying with, rather than from Covid, and the virus not being discovered until after they had died. 

Deadly week 

As a review of the country's Covid protection settings fast approaches, this week is shaping up to be the deadliest of the pandemic to date. 

As of yesterday, there were 338 deaths since Covid hit our shores in 2020. The majority had occurred during the current Omicron outbreak and modelling and health experts expect more people to lose their lives from the virus this month. 
 
According to Ministry of Health data, last week was the deadliest seven-day period of the outbreak with 84 deaths. 

Since Monday, reported deaths had already hit 81 with the likelihood the grim tally would surpass this and record a new deadly weekly high. 

Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the number of deaths in New Zealand linked to Covid-19 was rising sadly - and the total number of deaths per million people was 59. 

Of yesterday's 22 reported Covid-related deaths, one was from Northland, 10 were from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, two were from Bay of Plenty, two were from the Lakes DHB, two were from the Wellington region and four were from Canterbury. 

Two people who died were in their 50s, four people were in their 60s, three people were in their 70s, six in their 80s and seven were aged over 90. 

Just over 101,500 people had Covid in the community, with the seven-day rolling average of new daily cases sitting at 14,515. 

There were 830 people in hospital with 26 in intensive care. 

Different pattern 

Bloomfield said it appeared there was a different pattern emerging this outbreak in the main metropolitan centres compared with the regions. 

In Auckland, Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley DHBs, which are confined to the cities, the outbreak went up quite quickly, peaked and was coming down quite quickly, he said. 

In the regions, the outbreak was developing more slowly and there was a more sustained peak. 

There was also a pattern of lower hospitalisations rates in the regions. Tairāwhiti, for example, had the highest case rate in the country over the past two weeks, but had only ever had a handful of hospitalisations. 

On Monday, Cabinet will be deciding whether to shift the country - or select regions - from red to orange settings, which will increase the number of people who can gather indoors. 

In recent days Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins indicated he was yet to have "a firm leaning" for Monday's review of traffic light settings. 

"We'll be following closely the public health advice we get over the weekend." 

The main difference between red and orange was the size of indoor gatherings, he said. There is no limit under orange. 

"The main thing we're all looking for is where we're at in terms of the overall peak." 

In some parts of the country, case numbers were continuing to trend up, he said. 

He wouldn't be drawn on Auckland's chances of moving to orange, having already passed its Omicron peak.